Elder choice and health care costs

While strategists struggle with the dilemmas of health care, they seem to overlook a practice that might simultaneously relieve the suffering of elder patients and limit the costs of their treatment. If elder patients were given a clear opportunity to choose, many might reject the costly procedures that keep them breathing in misery during the last weeks, months, and even years of their survival. Other elders who see the clouds of debility approaching might be freed of the dread of endless imprisonment in a nursing home. Empowering elders to make these choices does not require changes in law, but only changes in how we provide and finance care.